大般涅槃經集解 1.7

1.7

案道生曰：夫真理自然，悟亦冥符；真則無差，悟豈容易。不易之體，為湛然常照，但從迷乖之，事未在我耳。苟能涉求，便反迷歸極，歸極得本。而似始起，始則必終。常以之昧，若尋其趣，乃是我始會之，非照今有。有不在今，則是莫先為大。既云大矣，所以為常。常必滅累，復曰般泥洹也。般泥洹者，正名云滅。取其義訓，自復多方。今此經明常，使伏其迷。其迷永伏，然後得悟。悟則眾迷斯滅，以之歸名其唯常說乎。又菩薩住斯經者，則已伏滅諸累。雖未造極，便能示般泥洹。眾示無妙泥洹，復以無不示為大也。更用茲稱經，蓋是重美盡善矣。

Master Daosheng states: The true principle is natural and spontaneous, and awakening is also a tacit accord [with it]. The true is without differentiation; how could awakening be easy? Its unalterable essence is serene and ever-illuminating; it is merely that through delusion one deviates from it, and the matter does not yet rest with oneself. If one can proceed to seek it, one reverses delusion and returns to the ultimate; returning to the ultimate, one attains the source. Yet it seems to start anew, and what begins must end. Permanence is obscured thereby. If one pursues its purport, it is simply that I have just now met it; the illumination does not exist only now. Since its existence does not belong only to the present, nothing precedes it, and so it is "Great." Being already called Great, it is therefore "Permanent." Permanence necessarily eliminates encumbrances, hence it is also called "parinirvāṇa." "Parinirvāṇa" properly translates as "extinction." Deriving from its exegetical senses, there are naturally many facets. Now this sūtra clarifies permanence so as to subdue one's delusion. Delusion having been permanently subdued, one then attains awakening. Upon awakening, the myriad delusions are extinguished; with this as the point of designation, how could it be anything other than a discourse on permanence? Furthermore, when bodhisattvas abide in this sūtra, they have already subdued and extinguished all encumbrances. Though they have not yet reached the ultimate, they can already demonstrate parinirvāṇa. In demonstrating to the multitude this wondrous nirvāṇa, it is again through manifesting it without exception that it is considered "Great." To further apply this title to the sūtra is indeed doubly praising its consummate excellence.